So Many Books, So Little Time

"For those of us with a bookish bent, reading is a reflexive response to everything. This is how we deal with the world and anything new that comes our way. We have always known that there is a book for every occasion and every obsession. When in doubt, we are always looking things up."

Diane Schoemperlen, Our Lady of the Lost and Found

My Indian name is Nose in a Book. While I wasn’t exactly born reading, I dragged a dictionary around with me when other toddlers had a blankie. I still have that dictionary, much the worse for wear.

One of my resolutions this year is to read less because my addiction just about took over my life last year. I read 120 books, ten per month. One of the books I read was about a woman who spent a year reading a book a week and her friends thought she was crazy for undertaking such an impossible task. Lightweight. I’d like to keep my reading down to one book a week.

The reason I take baths instead of showers is because you can’t read in the shower. I read as I eat my meals, watch TV or anytime I have a few spare minutes. It adds up to a minimum of two hours per day.

One of the reasons things got so out of control last year is because I started listening to books on CD in the car. At first I listened to seminars and non-fiction books only. Then I got an audio book by mistake from the library. I thought I had ordered the book not the CD book, but I decided to give it a try and I loved it. Now I can’t drive without listening to a book.

Yesterday, I finished listening to Jodi Picoult’s Vanishing Acts and immediately started Dana Stabenow’s A Deeper Sleep. This one is only six discs, so I need to line up another audio book so I don’t miss a beat when I finish this one.

As for my resolution, I’m making a little progress. I read eight books in January. Here’s what makes me crazy: Close to 200,000 books are published in the U.S. every year, and I can only read 100 of them. That means that every year there are 199,900 more books I can’t read.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Constant Learning in Action

“Learning a little every day soon puts you far behind whoever’s learning a lot every day.” Ashleigh Brilliant

It’s snowing again, for the SEVENTH week in a row, and the high temperature today will be 20˚. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we are all sick of this nasty weather, yet we are becoming strangely acclimated. The cold and snow don’t keep us from doing what we want to do.

Yesterday, which was cold but sunny, I had my final birthday lunch of the year. My birthday was three weeks ago, but this was the first time my friend Sheila and I had been able to get together. We met at a Thai restaurant in south central Denver, and she gave me a bookstore gift card—a GREAT gift for a book junkie like me.

Last night I started teaching a writing class at the university. One of my students, Martin Kaufman, owns OrthoPets, a company that manufactures custom orthotic and prosthetic devices for pets. It’s been several months since I last had Martin in class and in that time he has moved the business out of his garage and hired his first employees. He used his UOP classes in a very smart way. In almost every class, he used his growing business as the subject of his class projects, learning how to apply his new knowledge directly to his business. Improving his writing skills will help him to write clear emails to his customers in other parts of the world.

Although he graduates next month, I’m sure he will continue to learn and grow throughout his life. For some people, lifelong learning is more than a nice concept; it’s a way of life.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Taking it to the Streets

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

After an unheard of six straight weeks of snow and cold weather, the news this morning features a man in East Denver who took matters into his own hands. Armed with an ice pick, he started breaking up and clearing his street of the thick ice that remains on all the residential streets in Denver. Neighbors followed his lead and soon they had clean pavement again.

The moral of this story—that we can’t rely on someone else to take care of everything, even (or especially) when that someone else is the government. My friend, Chris, sent the following message and link about a group of citizens who undertook a rescue that official agencies were unable to complete:

“You may have heard about the herd of horses that were trapped for 3 days on a tiny piece of land in wind and rain in the Netherlands a short while ago? They were trapped on a small piece of land, surrounded by water. Their natural instincts kept them from swimming to solid land, from their tiny perch. There were about 100 horses huddled together against the wind and water. The Nation was mesmerized watching this drama as 18 of the horses perished, while others were slowly weakening.
First the fire department, then the Dutch army, tried to rescue them - both efforts were unsuccessful. Then, with a break in the weather, the water level went down and four women hatched a plan to attempt a rescue by luring the horses into the water.
Here's a video of the successful rescue. I was very touched as I watched the video of these magnificent animals being saved. I hope you enjoy this uplifting video.”

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

“I used to run with the wolves. Now I nap with the cats” saying on a button

Next to reading, napping is my favorite activity. That sentence should read that napping is my favorite inactivity. Whatever. I like to take naps and working at home allows me to do that whenever I want to. I nap in my recliner, on my bed and in an Adirondack chair on my patio, where on nice days I read in the sunshine after lunch. Science tells us that our natural biorhythms dip in the early afternoon, and anyone who has ever had to attend a meeting or class at 1 p.m. can corroborate the research.

Many famous people have been nappers, including John F. Kennedy, Thomas Edison, Leonardo DaVinci, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Gene Autry.

A new book, Take a Nap! Change Your Life by Dr. Sara C. Mednick claims that a short nap can boost your productivity by 34 percent. According to Dr. Mednick, a complete sleep cycle lasts about 90 minutes. Therefore, the benefit derived from napping depends on how long you sleep. Twenty minutes takes you to Stage 2 sleep, which increases alertness and motor skills. Forty minutes, results in slow wave sleep, which improves memory. Sleep for a whole 90-minute cycle, and you will experience deep sleep and increase your creativity.

According to the National Sleep Foundation’s 2000 Poll, 67% of Americans are sleep-deprived. Sleeping too little can cause irritability, memory loss, depression, weight gain and even diabetes.

The lesson is simple. Stop reading and go take a nap. You’ll thank me for it later.
©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved